Learning From History

Professional researcher. Supporting open minds. Studying cultural narratives. Aware of social contagion. Highlighting memory holes.

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

No excuses - politicians were repeatedly warned of the effects lockdowns would have on children. This is what happens 👇when panic, irrational activists & a 'just do something' mentality influence decision-making. Lest us not forget.
https://t.co/8gPduKfXHv

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@OffGuardian0 I read the BBC didn't have a reporter at court for most if not the whole of the hearing. Is this right? (Wouldn't surprise me if they only had someone there for the verdict, or just picked up on a Reuters' summary of proceedings).

[Capel Lofft @CapelLofft]

- Give 16 & 17 year olds the vote
- Impose a YouTube/social media curfew for 16 and 17 year olds and ban under 16s, thus making loads of new or soon-to-be voters hate you
- Kill the ponies

You know, I'm not entirely sure that politics is really Keir Starmer's thing

[Alan @A1an_M]

@AllisonPearson Something must be done. This is something. Therefore we must do this. 🙄

[Alan @A1an_M]

I remember during COVID when the government's big idea was the "Test and Trace" app which allowed people to check-in to venues using a QR code and trace people who had been in proximity to someone who had the *checks notes* deadly virus.

Unfortunately for the IT geniuses in government, the app required IOS version 13.5 or later or android version 6.0 later to run. Which meant that lots of people with relatively new phones were unable to download and run the app even if they wanted to.

With debate currently raging about social media bans and imminent digital ID, it's worth remembering that no matter how technologically incompetent you think the government is, it's still not enough.

[Merched Cymru @MerchedCymru]

.@sarahrees500 @LSRPlaid @Sioned_W @Heledd_Plaid — Well? Answer the question. https://t.co/XRkXxSYNqr

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@LauraTrottMP Your party didn't care two hoots about safeguarding children when you literally reduced their lives to screens in their bedrooms and isolated the vulnerable in 2020.

Nor when you took away their freedom to play in 2020, and closed their youth clubs & other services in the 2010s.

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@LauraTrottMP @MumsnetTowers @RaiseTheAge16 @HP4SaferScreens @safe_screens @Netmums But your party literally reduced children's lives to screens in their bedrooms in 2020-22.

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

A pity they didn't wake up to warnings in 2020 before they literally reduced children's lives to screens in their bedrooms.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

It is fantastic news that the Government has finally woken up to the dangers of social media for young people. This is an important step in helping parents protect childhood for children.

Huge credit goes to @LauraTrottMP and my Shadow Cabinet for relentlessly fighting for this. Conservatives welcome this latest Labour U-turn, and will continue to work for the best implementation of the policy.

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

What did politicians expect would happen from these policies? They were warned.

But they're still hyping AI, tech & screens as a new Utopia for all, something that despite the social media ban can only continue to divorce children and the rest of us from life in the real world.

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@Conservatives Austerity closed children & young people's services.

You literally reduced children & young people's perspectives in 2020-22 to their screens.

Now you think this is the answer?

You really need to go back to basics.

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@Conservatives Austerity closed children & young people's services.

You literally reduced children & young people's perspectives in 2020-22 to their screens.

Now you think this is the answer?

You really need to go back to basics.

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

Many are unaware how much young people's & children's options have been constricted over the past few years thanks to austerity & policies of 2020-22. Politicians who allowed all that are now telling us social media's bad yet are still hyping AI, tech & screens🤦‍♀️.

This👇100%👏

[Lucy Easthope @LucyGoBag]

Fund youth clubs. Open up the outdoor. Free sport. Tackle food poverty. More parenting hubs. Less birth trauma…It’s a long list to give them that childhood you so want for them…

[Lembit Öpik @lembitopik]

Unless Labour plans to spy on parents, banning kids from social media is futile

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@LucyGoBag Perhaps they're consulting with people who are totally disconnected from how everyday life works for most of us, and so are themselves ill informed, but are scarily brimful of confidence in their own vision.

[Lucy Easthope @LucyGoBag]

Remember this

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@LucyGoBag I wept then as I weep now at how obvious the consequences were going to be. Then they herded them en masse into the online fold arguing safety, now they wish to herd them out with another type of safety argument. It's no wonder our children's heads are spinning...

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

One of the greatest threats to internet freedom and privacy are these manipulative laws, now spreading, that force people to prove they're of a certain age to use social media platforms and other sites. The UK Government, naturally, is now seeking this.

The defense of these laws is emotionally powerful by appealing to child protection, but the real goal is online surveillance, an end to anonymity, and control over political content that young people can access. Few have done a better job reporting on these tyrannical threats than @TaylorLorenz. Read this:

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

👇👇👇

[Labour Heartlands @Labourheartland]

Today Sir Keir Starmer announced a full ban on under-16s using the major social media platforms. It will be sold to you as protecting children. Read the mechanism, and you find something else entirely.

You cannot stop one child from logging in to Instagram without establishing the age of every adult logging in. And you cannot check everyone's age without forcing every pensioner, every worker, every student to prove who they are. "Child safety" is the cheese in the mousetrap. The child is the shield. The adult is the target.

We have seen this exact identity layer before. Last September Starmer announced the BritCard, a digital ID he wanted made mandatory for the right to work. 2.7 million of us signed against it, the polling collapsed, and the government retreated. But notice what was never withdrawn: the plumbing. The GOV. One Login, the digital wallet, the whole identity scaffold, quietly kept building while our attention was allowed to wander. Now a policy arrives that cannot function without it.

This is not speculation. Phase 2 of the Online Safety Act already runs more than five million age checks a day, most of them on adults reaching for perfectly legal content. One age-verification contractor was breached and roughly 70,000 government identity documents walked out of the door. And Britain already arrests more people for what they post online than China, Russia, Belarus or Germany.

If the government were serious about children it would ban the smartphone in the school: cheap, targeted, proven. It refused, and voted the measure down. It chose instead the path that verifies the entire adult population. Ask yourself why.

The Ministry of Truth does not arrive shouting censorship. It arrives smiling, with safeguarding legislation. Papers please…

Read more... 👇

https://t.co/qqSDhCIIQA

#DigitalID #OnlineSafety #socialmediaban #STARMER

[Alan @A1an_M]

Government: "There's a deadly virus! School isn't safe! Playgrounds aren't safe! Meeting friends isn’t safe! You must go home and stay there!"

Kids: "Ok. Off to social media for us then"

Government: "Social media isn't safe! Watch Regime propaganda only! Oh, and you can vote for us when you're 16!"

Kids: "WTF? And you think we're the stupid, immature ones?"

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@MerchedCymru A spiral that spins out of control.
Tragedy is so many are caught up in that vortex it's made them lose sight of reason. Perhaps they'll come face to face with the consequences when the dizzying effect dies down.

[Learning From History @Memory_Hound]

@MerchedCymru Spot on.